Meet the Hometown Advantage Team

Meet the Team

Hometown Advantage brings together guides selected for knowledge, presence, reliability, and the ability to connect with organized groups. Each assignment is matched to the destination, itinerary, and audience.

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Hometown Advantage professional guide teamEvery assignment is matched to the destination, audience, itinerary, and style of experience you want to deliver.Pacific Northwest group experiences

Team-centered by design

The right professional for the assignment

Guide selection begins with the destination and operating plan. We consider the route, group profile, narrative priorities, presentation needs, timing, and working relationship with the driver and group leader.

That assignment-based approach gives your group the benefit of a guide selected for the work at hand, supported by clear preparation and a shared understanding of the itinerary.

Founder & Tour-Company Leader

David Schargel

David brings 25 years of tourism and tour-company experience to Hometown Advantage, helping shape guide standards, destination storytelling, and service for professional tour operators and planners.

David Schargel has spent 25 years creating and leading tourism experiences in Portland and the Pacific Northwest. He founded Portland Walking Tours in 2001 and developed a broad portfolio of history, culinary, cultural, and specialty tours while also working with group-travel and meetings-industry clients.

Portland Walking Tours concluded operations during COVID-19. At Hometown Advantage, David carries forward the preparation, storytelling discipline, and operational understanding developed over more than two decades while building a service designed around a broader professional guide team.

David helps shape how assignments are prepared, how destination stories are matched to the route and audience, and how Hometown Advantage works with drivers, tour leaders, operators, and planners. His role is important evidence of experience, but the company’s promise is delivered through the guide and operating team matched to each engagement.

Professional focus

Destination context

Portland, Seattle, Select Pacific Northwest regional destinations. Exact assignment coverage is confirmed for the date and itinerary.

Before assignment

Match, prepare, and brief

Hometown Advantage reviews the guide fit, current itinerary, meeting points, vehicle context, group profile, accessibility inputs, content priorities, and any confirmed reservations. Open access or timing questions remain visible until resolved.

During service

Collaborate and communicate

The guide delivers the scoped experience, works respectfully with the driver and group leader, monitors time, and adjusts narration when the real route changes. The operating roles defined in the proposal remain intact.

Match the guide to the work

Tell us where, when, and who is aboard

A useful proposal starts with the destination, schedule, vehicle, audience, group needs, and story priorities—not a generic availability promise.